Migraines
by Skye1963
Summary: Sam Winchester had migraines for most of his life. It took living with Amelia to finally find out why. S8


_A quick drabble that starts when Sam is about twelve until he's thirty. Usually, I don't put my own experiences in a story but this just called to me. The descriptions are accurate based on what I went through for years until we found the cause, which will also be reflected in Sam. I hope you enjoy._

_A big thank you to my beta Daiyu Amaya! _

Migraines

Sam was twelve when they started, the headaches. It started as a tightening at the base of his head then it turned into a pain. The pain then traveled on one side of his head until it felt as though his head had been split in half and his eye was ready to pop out of his skull. He spent the next ten hours in bed asleep. When he woke up, he felt euphoric almost as though he was floating.

The migraines kept coming and each time, he learned what did and didn't help. He couldn't handle any lights, noise or even the smell of food otherwise he would be in the bathroom on his knees in front of the toilet. Certain scents, like dirty clothes, set off his stomach while sharp odors were okay. He found that soaking in a very warm bath helped loosen his muscles and a cool pillow that was bunched under his neck helped even more. Sam found that, when a migraine hit, he needed to breathe in through his nose and out through his mouth. It helped but nothing really stopped them.

As he grew older, the headaches worsened in intensity and frequency. They made his temper short and he started to take his pain out on the only other person he knew could take it, his dad. If he wasn't fighting with his dad, Sam was withdrawn. He slept more too, at one point he was sleeping about twenty hours a day on the weekends. It scared John so much that he took Sam to the doctor who ordered on EEG. The test confirmed the diagnosis of migraines. The neurologist who did the test told John that Sam's migraines were similar to epilepsy and were caused when blood vessels were constricted on one side of his brain. Then the doctor put Sam on migraine medicine. It helped only with a decrease of the frequency but did nothing for the pain. After a while, the doctor added a barbiturate called phenobarbital for the pain and prescribed two cups of coffee a day to help combat the effect of sleepiness that the drug caused. The drugs were changed every so often to try to find a combination that helped but nothing really did.

Dean researched migraines and found that they had triggers. Sam's triggers were chocolate, stress, flashing lights and certain smells. He got Sam very dark sunglasses and a blindfold that he could sleep with when he had a spell. Dean also got John to agree not to eat in the room when Sam was down since it made Sam vomit. They kept the room cool, dark and as quiet as possible. John had to put his foot down about his baby driving until he was older saying that if Sam's migraines hit when he was on the road, he could get into an accident.

All of these things were fine but the underlying cause of Sam's migraines wasn't found out until he was thirty and it was Amelia who helped him figure it out. Before she died, Jess had also figured it out and was going to mention it to Sam but she didn't have a chance. Amelia noticed that Sam would stop breathing when he was asleep many times a night. He also snored loud enough to rattle the windows and it kept her up for many nights. When she mentioned it to a friend of hers, the friend told her to get Sam into a sleep study for apnea. Sam didn't want to do it but after waking up with a migraine three days in a row, he finally agreed.

The sleep study found he had moderate obstructed sleep apnea even though he wasn't overweight. The doctor asked if he had been a premature birth and Sam said yes, he had been born with underdeveloped lungs. Then Sam asked if the fire that happened in his nursery when he was six months old could also be part of the apnea and the doctor said that it was definitely a contributor since his lungs would have been compromised due to the heat and smoke. Sam was then fitted with a CPAPS (continual positive air pressure system) machine with a full face mask that covered his mouth and nose. It took him just a few days to get used to sleeping with it but he finally started to get a good night's rest. It took a few months before he realized that his migraines were all but gone. When he contacted the doctor, Sam was told that he probably had apnea all his life since he was born with underdeveloped lungs and it was because he wasn't getting enough oxygen to his brain while he was asleep that he had migraines.

He still had to be careful of his triggers since the CPAPS didn't get rid of the migraines completely but now they were less intense and infrequent. He would always need to sleep with a machine, something that Dean alternately teased him about and praised since that meant Dean could finally sleep as well when they were in the same room.

_When I was younger, I was told I snored. It sounded like a percolator and actually fooled my uncle into thinking that coffee was being made. I started to have migraines when I started puberty and one of the drugs that I was prescribed was mentioned in my story. I was told that my migraines were kin to epilepsy by my neurologist and was given a list of possible triggers. For years, I had at least two to three migraines a week that lasted for hours. At one point, I was sleeping for at least twenty hours a day. It wasn't until I was older that I went in for a sleep study and found I had sleep apnea and, like Sam, my migraines decreased in the frequency and intensity after I got my CPAPS. Like Sam, I was born prematurely with underdeveloped lungs and was diagnosed with apnea at a very young age but I didn't know it until much later._

_Now, I have maybe three a year, thank God. Sam's triggers are my own and I still have to be careful even after getting my CPAPS. Migraines have many causes but mine (and Sam's) was apnea. If you snore loudly, are tired all the time, and have headaches, please talk to your doctor about doing a sleep study. It may help you and it couldn't hurt._


End file.
